''The Sunday Times'' is a
tabloid Sunday newspaper published by Western Press Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of
Seven West Media
Seven West Media Limited is an ASX-listed media company and is Australia's largest diversified media business, with an extensive presence in broadcast television, print and online publishing.
Seven Group Holdings Ltd (SGH), a company control ...
, in
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
and distributed throughout
Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
. Founded as The West Australian Sunday Times, it was renamed The Sunday Times from 30 March 1902.
Owned since 1955 by
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
's
News Corp Australia
News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,00 ...
and corporate predecessors, the newspaper and its website ''PerthNow'', were sold to Seven West Media in 2016.
[SWM finalises purchase of The Sunday Times]
. ''The West Australian
''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...
'', 8 November 2016, page 3
History
Established by
Frederick Vosper
Frederick Charles Burleigh Vosper (23 March 1869 – 6 January 1901) was an Australian newspaper journalist and proprietor, and politician. He was well known for his ardent views and support of Australian republicanism, federalism and trade uni ...
and Edward Ellis in 1897, ''The Sunday Times'' became a vehicle for Vosper's harassment of
C. Y. O'Connor
Charles Yelverton O'Connor, (11 January 1843 – 10 March 1902), was an Irish engineer who is best known for his work in Western Australia, especially the construction of Fremantle Harbour, thought to be impossible, and the Goldfields Water Sup ...
and the Fremantle Harbour works, the
Goldfields Water Supply Scheme
The Goldfields Water Supply Scheme is a pipeline and dam project that delivers potable water from Mundaring Weir in Perth to communities in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields, particularly Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. The project was commi ...
, and Perth's deep sewerage project, from 1898 until O'Connor's death by suicide in 1902. A subsequent government inquiry found no justification for Vosper's campaign against O'Connor.
The paper was purchased from Vosper's estate by
James MacCallum Smith
James MacCallum Smith (26 April 1868 – 6 August 1939) was an Australian politician, newspaper proprietor and stock breeder. He lobbied unsuccessfully for many years for the secession of Western Australia from the Federation of Australia.
Bio ...
and
Arthur Reid in 1901. In 1912, MacCallum Smith became sole proprietor and managing director, remaining in that role until 1935, as well as being a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly for 20 years.
A. T. Chandler succeeded J. E. Webb as editor around 1920, and was an effective promoter of MacCallum Smith's
secessionist
Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics lea ...
views.
In 1935, a syndicate led by
Jack Simons
John "Jack" Joseph Simons (also widely known and referred to as J. J. Simons and J. J. "Boss" Simons (12 August 1882 – 24 October 1948) was an Australian businessman and politician, best known for establishing the Young Australia League.
Ear ...
and including
Victor Courtney
Victor Desmond Courtney (27 May 1894 – 1 December 1970) was a Western Australian journalist and newspaper editor. From small beginnings in a partnership (with Jack Simons) in a weekly sporting newspaper, ''The Call'', through to a Saturd ...
and mining entrepreneur
Claude de Bernales
Claude Albo de Bernales (31 May 1876 – 9 December 1963) was a Western Australian mining entrepreneur whose business activities and marketing did much to stimulate investment in Western Australia during the early years of the twentieth ce ...
purchased Western Press Limited, the publisher of the paper, for £55,000. Simons was chairman and managing director until his death in 1949 when Courtney took control. In 1955 Courtney sold Western Press to
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
's News Limited.
The 2016 sale to
Kerry Stokes
Kerry Matthew Stokes (born John Patrick Alford on 13 September 1940) is an Australian businessman. He holds business interests in a diverse range of industries including electronic and print media, property, mining, and construction equipment. ...
's Seven West Media was not opposed by the
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Tra ...
and included certain co-operative arrangements, including sharing of news content between SWM and
News Corp
News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The second incarnation of the News Corporation (1980–2013), original News Corporation, it was formed ...
, which will also handle Sunday Times and PerthNow advertising sales in Australia's eastern states. The two companies were already partners in Western Australia's
Community Newspaper Group
The Community Newspaper Group was a community newspaper business in Perth, Western Australia. Owned by Seven West Media, it published 23 community newspapers within the metropolitan region of Perth, from Yanchep and Two Rocks in the city's nort ...
.
[ Under the sale agreement, printing and distribution of those 17 local papers and W.A. circulation of '']The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'' will be done by SWN's West Australian Newspapers
''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...
.
Format and circulation
To counter decreasing demand for newspapers and competition from radio, television and internet news, ''The Sunday Times'' has made adaptations in style and presentation. Its statewide circulation and extensive advertising content make it probably the most profitable newspaper in Australia.
The paper's stated audited circulation was 282,585 in 2011, 257,330 in March 2013, and 184,012 in March 2016.[
In June 2006, ''The Sunday Times'' launched ''PerthNow'', an online presentation of local news from News Limited. , third-party ]web analytics
Web analytics is the measurement, data collection, collection, analysis, and reporting of web Data (computing), data to understand and optimize web usage. Web analytics is not just a process for measuring web traffic but can be used as a tool fo ...
provider Alexa
Alexa may refer to: Technology
*Amazon Alexa, a virtual assistant developed by Amazon
* Alexa Internet, a defunct website ranking and traffic analysis service
* Arri Alexa, a digital motion picture camera
People
*Alexa (name), a given name and ...
, ranked Perthnow.com.au as the 233rd most visited website in Australia, while SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb Ltd. is an Israeli web analytics company specializing in web traffic and performance. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, the company has 12 offices worldwide. Similarweb went public on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2021.
History
The c ...
rated the site as the 32nd most visited news website in Australia.
Editors
Recent editors have been Don Smith from 1987, Brian Crisp from 1999, Brett McCarthy from 2001, Sam Weir from June 2007, Christopher Dore from April 2012 and Rod Savage from June 2013. In November 2016, The position devolved to Michael Beach, a Walkley-Award-winning journalist and SWM senior editor.[ The position was made obsolete in April 2020. (https://mumbrella.com.au/swm-makes-the-sunday-times-editor-role-redundant-in-response-to-covid-19-impacts-624138)
]
Competition-free status
Western Australia's diminutive population has not enjoyed a competitive Sunday newspaper since ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' was bought out by News Limited in 1984 and wound up in May 1986.
Before 1990, Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
had competitive Saturday newspapers (''Weekend News'' and ''Western Mail'' (1980–1988)), as well as weekday morning and afternoon dailies (''The West Australian
''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...
'' and '' Daily News'' respectively). A small-circulation state edition of Murdoch's national daily ''The Australian
''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition, ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964.Bruns, Axel. "3.1. The active audience: Transforming journalism from gatekeeping to gatew ...
'' is printed at ''The Sunday Times'', targeting an elite readership group in a way which does not seriously impinge on the more demotic audience of ''The West Australian''.
A joint venture between the two companies produced many suburban papers under the Community Newspapers banner until Seven West Media bought the remaining stake in 2019 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-27/seven-west-media-buys-remaining-stake-in-community-newspapers/11153572). The Community masthead was retired in 2020 (https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/perth/seven-west-media-to-retire-community-newspaper-group-brand-relaunching-as-free-perthnow-newspapers-ng-b881912202z). Independents that are ''not'' produced by Seven West Media include Echo Newspapers
''The Echo'' is a weekly newspaper founded in 1985 and delivered every Saturday in the eastern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia.
The paper has a circulation of 64, 063 and covers the City of Swan and the Perth Hills, including the Shire of Mun ...
, Examiner Newspapers
''The Examiner'' is a weekly newspaper founded in 1989 and delivered on Thursdays and Fridays in the south-eastern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia.
The edition covering Armadale, Western Australia, Armadale, Serpentine-Jarrahdale and Gosnell ...
, Herald Newspapers (with ''Perth Voice''), and Post Newspapers
Post Newspapers comprises the four editions of a community newspaper covering a group of western suburbs in Perth, Western Australia.
History
The Post Newspapers group was established as the ''Subiaco Post'' by reporter Bret Christian and his ...
.
2008 leak controversy
On 30 April 2008, members of the police fraud squad conducted a raid on the offices of ''The Sunday Times''—an unusual event for Australian mainstream media—following a state government complaint that confidential cabinet information had been leaked to the paper. An upper-house select committee inquiry subsequently found that no direction had been given to police by any minister, parliamentarian or staffer; and that "the police over-reacted in what should have been a routine search". The committee's findings included criticism of the Western Australian Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Corruption and Crime Commission
The Corruption and Crime Commission is an independent anti-corruption agency established on 1 January 2004 to improve the integrity of the Western Australian public sector and investigate allegations of misconduct against public officers.
It t ...
. It also recommended "that the Attorney General continue to pursue the introduction of shield laws for journalists".Report of Select Committee into the Police Raid on The Sunday Times
9 April 2009, at Parliament of Western Australia
The Parliament of Western Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Western Australia, forming the legislative branch of the Government of Western Australia. The parliament consists of a lower house, the Legislative Ass ...
. Accessed 29 November 2013
See also
* List of newspapers in Australia
This is a list of newspapers in Australia. For other older newspapers, see list of defunct newspapers of Australia.
National
In 1950, the number of national daily newspapers in Australia was 54 and it increased to 65 in 1965.
Daily newspape ...
* The West Australian
''The West Australian'' is the only locally edited daily newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia. It is owned by Seven West Media (SWM), as is the state's other major newspaper, ''The Sunday Times''. It is the second-oldest continuousl ...
References
Further reading
* Dunn, Frank (1997) ''A Century of Sundays'' Perth, W.A. Sunday Times.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunday Times
Newspapers published in Perth, Western Australia
Weekly newspapers published in Australia
Sunday Times (Western Australia)
''The Sunday Times'' is a tabloid Sunday newspaper published by Western Press Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Seven West Media, in Perth and distributed throughout Western Australia. Founded as The West Australian Sunday Times, it was renamed The Sun ...
Seven Network